In The Gloam
by SaxonShieldmaiden
Summary: A few years before his turning, Jasper Whitlock fell in love with and married a strange girl, only to lose her when she was wounded and disappeared. Now, years later, his faerie bride returns, and all seems well, but things rarely stay that way, especially with Alice's powers spottier than normal, new nomads threatening the borders. JxB Twilight, with Bella as half-fae.
1. Chapter 1

"Hello, Mister Whitlock." Jasper grinned as he walked into the kitchen, removing his boots and looking at the sweet brunette with strange, vivid green eyes. It was an odd tradition, inherently theirs, after his bride had been so pleased to be introduced as 'Mister and Missus Whitlock,' after their wedding, with two-wing silverbell still in her hair and a handful of mountain laurel in her hands.

"Well, hello there, Missus Whitlock, ma'am." He drawled, taking in the sight of the worn saddle on their rough dining table. "You planning to ride the table to town for dinner, darlin'?"

Isabella Whitlock let out a peal of laughter that pulled the smile out on Jasper's face. "Young Hickory down the road is a damn fool. They went and dehorned a cow, and couldn't stop the bleeding. They even wrapped the things with cobwebs before riding down to ask for my help."

"And you made them pay you in a saddle instead of something useful?" Jasper questioned.

"It's about power and miles and potential, Jasper, not usefulness." Isabella replied with a sigh. "You know that."

"I was just teasin', sweetheart." Jasper replied, contritely. He didn't fully believe in the magic she did, or the tales of her mother, but he had to believe some of it, after all he had seen. A saddle was better than the bent piece of wood, broken eggshell, or pretty stone she had collected from others in similar payment. "It's a fine saddle."

"It'll protect you." She said with a smile. "For as long as I can make it anyway. Make sure you always come home."

Jasper grasped her around the waist and smiled down at her. "What happens when you wander off? You got a magic saddle too?"

"I'll always find you." She replied, hand pressed to his heart.

"I don't get something tangible to be sure?" He teased.

Frowning, she disappeared into their room, and returned with a perfect white feather from who knows where. "Here." She said, tucking it into his pocket. "A promise. I will always find you."

* * *

It was strange for the Cullens to have visitors, so it took Esme a bit longer than normal to realize what the knock was. She lived with six others after all, but put down her paint chips and headed to the door. When she opened it, she found a girl who looked like a teenager, but her eyes were old. Esme would have suspected she was a vampire if it hadn't been for the fact that they were bright green, and that her heart was beating.

"Hello, can I help you?" She paused, noting how nervous the girl looked.

"I...I hope so." The girl said after a moment. "Is there someone here...that is...do you know a man named Jasper?"

Esme couldn't help but feel for how nervous the girl seemed, with good reason as they never had humans here. "Do you go to school with Jasper?"

"Oh, no ma'am." The girl replied, wiping her hands on her jeans. "That is to say...not yet? No, I'm...I'm his wife."

* * *

"Well, good evening, Major Whitlock." Isabella said pleased,, as he walked into the home with his new rank.

"Always a pleasure, Missius Whitlock," Jasper replied, beaming proudly at his new uniform. "You're looking well."

"Well, we're having my husband's commanding officer over for dinner. I had to break out the fine plates."

Jasper laughed, and leaned down to kiss her. "You are the finest thing in this place."

* * *

Esme blinked. "You're his _wife_?" She repeated. As long as they had known Jasper, all the times they had managed to get him to open up about his past, he had never mentioned a wife.

"Isabella Swan Whitlock, ma'am, a pleasure to meet you." Isabella replied, with a slight bob, as if she were wearing a dress instead of worn blue jeans. "Is Jasper here?"

Esme rolled this statement around, and then stepped back, opening the door wide. She didn't _smell_ like prey, and if she _was_ Jasper's wife, Esme couldn't turn her away. "He's not home right now, but he and the rest of our family should be back soon enough. Won't you come in?"

"That's very kind, ma'am."

"Call me Esme, dear."

* * *

Jasper had felt unsettled, as if something was wrong, without knowing why. He had made the sudden decision to head home, only for his eyes to widen in horror as he rode down the dirt road. He didn't remember how he made it from the horse to kneeling on the ground, pulling his wife into his arms. "Bella," he breathed. "Bella, darlin', what happened?" He was trying to keep her head up and put pressure on what looked like a pair of shears stabbed into her gut.

"Jasper." She wheezed. Her hand raised, as if reaching for him. "Get them out."

"If I do that, you'll bleed out." Jasper said, shaking his head. "It's staunching the wound."

"It _burns_," She said, dropping her hand to try and grab it. "Get it _out_, Jas, you have to get it _out_."

Jasper tried to clear around the wound, becoming horrified at the way the skin was bubbling and turning black. Between that and her pleading, despite knowing that removing the shears would make it bleed worse, he pulled out the shears and tossed them aside, immediately putting as much pressure on the wound as possible. "Stay with me, Bella." He demanded. "Don't you die on me."

"Mum…" Isabella managed, looking up.

Jasper glanced up, having never met his mother-in-law only to see a beautiful but strange woman, with a bright green dress and a feather capelet wrapped around her shoulders. "Go for help!" He shouted at her. "She needs help! The doctor…"

"Wouldn't be able to help her." The woman said coolly. She sank down on the other side of his wife. "What have you gotten yourself, _ma belle dame sans merci_?" She looked over the wound and grimaced. "You must come back to the mounds to heal."

"No." Isabella rasped. "I'll stay."

"You'll die, _mo dhuine beag._" Her mother said flatly. "If you come home, in time, you'll heal and come back."

Jasper felt tears mixing with the dust in the air and plastering to his cheeks. "She'll live?"

"Only if she comes with me." The woman said. "If she stays here, she'll be dead."

"Go, Bella." Jasper said, voice rough. "You said you'd always find me."

Bella shook her head. "It'll be too long. You won't…"

"I'll wait for you." Jasper promised. "Go."

"Look away, Jasper Whitlock." The woman said, sternly. "When you look back, she'll be safe."

Jasper did as the woman instructed, and when he looked back, she was gone, as was her mysterious mother, and all that said his wife had been in his arms was the blood on his hands and on the dirt road.

* * *

The kitchen was bright and airy, all big windows and polished wood and steel. Isabella gratefully accepted the cup of tea, sat on a stool on the breakfast bar, somewhat awkwardly. "The tea is delicious ma'...Esme." She corrected, when the woman huffed amusedly at her.

"Now, Isabella, was it?" Esme repeated. "When did you marry our Jasper?"

"You can call me Bella." The girl offered, before answering. "June twenty-first, eighteen sixty-one." She swung her legs a little unsurely. "Maybe he doesn't remember."

"He remembers most of his mortal life, though he doesn't speak about it much." Esme admitted. "If you don't mind me asking, if you're that old, how are you…"

"Alive?" Bella finished. "My mother is sidhe, of the line of Finnguala. I was...injured...and mother took me to her home to recover. She made me sleep, forgetting that time...passes differently here."

Esme stared at her for a long moment. There were whispers about the sidhe in some vampire circles, but they were largely dismissed as myths. "You're a fairy?"

"Half, actually." Bella answered. "For giving her a child, she's ensured that my father is regularly reincarnated, with his memory intact." She frowned. "I thought Jasper might...but then when I couldn't find him, I looked elsewhere and, well, found you."

"Well, I'm very glad you're here." Esme said, patting her hand. "Jasper has been lonely."

Bella smiled shakily. "Hopefully he'll still…" She trailed off. "I hope I can help."

* * *

Alice frowned, stopping for a moment in the hallway of Forks High. "Alice?" Edward asked, taking her elbow, and pushing her forward slightly. He didn't understand what he was seeing in his mate's mind. It had started out as Esme answering the door, but then there was a kind of _hole_ he had never seen before, and only a few moments later there was another flash, this time with Carlise and Esme both in the kitchen, before the _hole_ seemed to devour her sight.

Alice came out of it with a shake, suddenly pale. "I don't know. I've never...there's never been anything like that before. We need to get home."

"What's happening?" Rosalie asked, herding the family into an empty hallway.

"I don't know!" Alice said, voice going high and thin. "It's like I have a blind spot, something I can't see!"

"Okay." Jasper said quietly. "We can't all leave. Rosalie and I will stay behind while Emmett and Edward take Alice home. When they ask, she wasn't feeling well."

"I'm _not _staying behind if there's danger." Rosalie hissed.

"We don't know that there is." Jasper pointed out, trying his best to calm everyone and be the strategic one. "And if there is, Edward is fastest, and Emmett is strongest, and they can call us if there are any problems."

Rosalie grumbled, but acquiesced.

* * *

Esme wanted to believe the girl, she really did, but it wasn't her decision alone, and so while chatting politely, she waited for her husband to return. When he did, she hurried into the foyer. "There you are! We have a guest I'd like you to meet."

"A guest?" Carlisle repeated, shedding his jacket. "Is that wise, Esme?"

"She came looking for Jasper." Esme replied, in a low voice. "She's not one of us but she's not human either...she says she's half-sidhe."

"Sidhe?" Carlisle repeated. "I didn't know if any were still around, with so much iron being used." He frowned. "What does she want with Jasper? Fae are notoriously tricky."

Esme fluttered slightly. "Come speak to her."

Carlisle sighed, but followed, immediately taking in the strange scent of the girl, and the unearthly green eyes. He held out a hand. "I'm Dr. Carlisle Cullen."

"Isabella Whitlock," she replied, shaking his hand. "Good to meet you, sir."

Carlisle's eyes went wide. "You're related to our Jasper, then?"

"I am...or I was...his wife. It's been so long, I wouldn't blame him if he's moved on." Bella managed, trying to look unaffected, but not even coming close.

"How were you separated?" Carlisle questioned, feeling protective of his adoptive son.

Bella winced. "There's a...strangeness…to the _aos sí_." She started, carefully, a strangeness in even her voice as she used the name. "Even half-born like me, are...unusual. I would help people who needed it, but that could breed contempt too." She swallowed hard. "I was stabbed by a scared human, iron poisoning." Almost instinctively, her hand went to where the wound had been. "It would have been fatal, but my mother, who's fullborn, came when I was dying in Jasper's arms, and put me to sleep in her barrow." She pursed her lips. "When I woke, I came looking."

"So long?" Carlisle asked, lips pursed.

"Time passes differently." Bella explained. "It was far too long. I don't know if he…but I needed to find him. I need to _see_ him."

Carlisle didn't have to be an empath to see and hear the pain and yearning in her voice. "All right." He agreed. "It'll be some time yet…"

As if belying that, Edward, Emmett, and Alice arrived home. Carlisle knew right away, of course, but he had no way of knowing what the girl in front of him could tell, and Jasper wasn't with them. "But you are welcome to stay until he comes home."

"You are very kind, Dr. Cullen." Isabella replied with a grateful smile.

Carlisle noted that she, like all the stories of the fair folk, was polite, but deftly avoided saying thank you, despite obviously meaning so. It lent credence to her story. Many people in the modern age didn't know that.

"What _is_ she?" Alice's voice was high and panicky. "I can't _see_ her, or anything around her!"

"She's a guest, Alice." Esme scolded, gently. "She's here to see Jasper."

"I can't tell you if you can trust her." Alice protested. "I can't tell you _anything_. Everything around her is dark!"

Edward placed a hand on Alice's shoulder. "Come on, honey." He said, calmly. "Let's head back and tell Jasper he has a guest."

"But…"

"Emmett can stay." Edward said, with a glance at his brother who nodded.

"I'll stay too." Alice said stubbornly. "Unless _you_ can read her?"

Slowly, Edward shook his head, and sighed. "Fine, we'll stay. Emmett, can you go get Jazz?"

"Yup." Emmet said, with a grin. "Be right back."

The kitchen descended into a frosty silence.

* * *

Emmett arrived vampire-quick, and caught Jasper's attention with a forged note from Carlisle. He then slid into class next to Rosalie.

"Mr. Hale, Dr. Cullen has excused you for the rest of the day. Please read chapter six." The teacher said, bored.

Jasper blinked, surprised he would be summoned, and that Emmett would return. He shot the burly vampire a look.

"You have a guest." Emmett said, too low for anyone else to hear.

Jasper left the class, puzzled. What kind of guest could set Alice off so much? It couldn't be Peter and Charlotte. They would have called, and Alice always could predict their visits. Besides, Emmett had said '_a guest_' and not '_guests_.' Who else would come to see _him_?

He ran most of the way to the house, puzzled when he got close. There _was_ a strange scent, but it wasn't _food_. Something earthy and wild, mixed with apples and something sharp. He slowed, and walked up to the door, trying to decode it.

"I'm here." He said normally, knowing his family would hear him, letting his nose carry him to the rarely used kitchen, where Edward, Alice, Carlisle, and Esme were gathered. Then he spotted the other person, and froze.

_"Good day, Major Whitlock."_

He hadn't heard that voice in far too long. His mouth worked soundlessly for a moment, shocked, and then somehow, _something _came out, accent twanging through despite himself.

_"A joy, as always, to see you, Missus Whitlock, ma'am."_


	2. Chapter 2

Jasper shook himself, trying to figure out if he was going insane. "Bella?" He murmured, taking a step towards the woman he hadn't seen in over a century. "Bella, darlin'...is it really you?"

"It's me." Bella managed in answer, trying to slide from the stool, but pitching forward, losing her balance in the attempt.

Jasper caught her in his arms before she could blink. "Still got them feet like a new colt." He teased, despite himself.

Bella huffed, green eyes sparkling. "I've come straight from the barrow to find you, I didn't take my time to find my legs."

The memory of her almost-death in his arms played over his mind again, and he held her tighter. "You're healed?" One hand slid around to where the shears had stabbed her.

Somberly, Bella pulled away enough to lift the edge of the shirt, showing him a black, uneven, scar, as if from a chemical burn, pitted and raised across her abdomen. A hiss of sympathy escaped more than one of the other Cullens. "As much as I'll ever be." She admitted. "Iron burns aren't pretty." She managed, suddenly self-conscious. "And you waited so long. You lived _this _while I slept." To punctuate it, she ran her fingers across a few of the scars that weren't hidden by his clothes.

Jasper froze. "You can see…?" He managed.

"Jasper." She said, lovingly exasperated. "We're more alike now than when we said I do."

Jasper dropped his eyes, ashamed. "I won't hold you, Bella. I know they're hideous…"

"Jasper Silas Whitlock!" Bella snapped, pulling away slightly. Her eyes narrowed on his dipped head, and she pronounced his name formally. "We both have our scars, my soldier boy. I won't leave unless...unless you don't want me."

"You came back to me." Jasper reminded her. "You promised you'd find me and you did."

"Of course I did." Bella replied, surprised. "You're my husband, my mate...by the _Courts_, Jasper, I took your _Name_!" The capitals in her voice confused a few of the eavesdroppers, but Carlise understood just how much power names gave people when dealing with the Fair Folk. "I love you, you ridiculous man. Just like I did when you were the sweet, charismatic young man, with hair more gold than the honey people used to leave."

Jasper grinned and leaned down to kiss her, wrapping his arms around her. "I love you too." He replied, softly, against her lips.

"I wasn't sure." Bella confessed. "I tried to track my feather...I thought maybe when you had tired of waiting…"

Jasper shook his head. "Maria destroyed it to punish me when I let a friend escape." He admitted. "She didn't know what it meant to me, but she knew it was important to me, and thus something she could take away. I'm sorry, Bella…"

"Shhh." Bella crooned, placing her head on his chest. "It was only a feather. I have more."

"I was supposed to keep it so you'd find your way back. What if that's why it took so long?" Jasper asked, despondent.

"It was a silly little enchantment I learned as a five-year-old." Bella replied, rolling her eyes at him. "What _took_ so long was my mother running hither and yon playing fairy bride and only checking me every ten years or so."

Jasper chuckled, trying to fight down the anger he felt at that. "Isn't that what you were for me?" He asked. "My fairy bride?"

"No!" Bella said, eyes wide, as she pulled away from him. "Never!"

Jasper, hurt, suddenly pulled back, as well, eyes confused. "I'm a mite confused, darlin', 'cause I was there when you said 'I do.'"

"I am your _wife_." Bella said, incensed.

"Yes…" Jasper drawled, slowly, not understanding. He could feel her anger, but he couldn't figure out the issue with what he had said.

Bella was slowly and properly enunciating every word when she spoke again. "I am your _wife_. I did _not_ just...just _play house_ with you for five or ten years, and then _prance off_ to find another more _entertaining_ human!" She shouted. "I was willing to _stay_ there with you, until _you_ made me _go_. I was bloody _stabbed_ by a greedy _bitch _who thought I jinxed her _prospects_!" Her voice got slightly shriller. "Our marriage was not a _game_!"

Suddenly understanding, Jasper pushed out every ounce of calm he could to his shaking wife. "I know that, Bella. I didn't understand what that phrase meant to you." He said, in his most soothing tone. "I only meant it in that you were my bride, and you are a fairy."

Bella blew out a breath. "It's Mother's favourite game, even if she doesn't mean it to be a game." She said slowly. "Find and fall in love with a _fascinating _human, get married, play at being mortal as she inspires him to great heights, until she tires of him, and then leave for the next one, leaving her previous husband behind like a husk, unable to move on from her." Her voice cracked. "My father lasted the longest. I like to think she _did_ really love him, but...she says she can't be tied down that way. He's still her favourite. It's why she makes sure he's always reincarnated, and every time he takes her back, and she always leaves him again."

Jasper, suddenly and heartbreakingly knew why she had reacted the way she did. They _had_ been separated by lifetimes, after only a few years of marriage, and she was afraid he saw her like her mother, playing with him. "No, darlin', never." He said firmly, holding her as tightly as he could. "I never thought that, not once."

Bella pressed as close as she could. "How do we want to do this?" She asked, looking around at his coven.

"What do you mean?" Jasper asked, confused.

Bella chuckled slightly. "Close your eyes." She instructed. When he did, she placed a kiss on either eyelid. "Now, do you see?"

* * *

Jasper Whitlock was not someone easily intimidated. He was well-liked in town, and while not well-off, the Whitlocks as a family were respectable. Still, his nerves did a dance as he stood in front of the imposing Texas Ranger. "Mr. Swan, sir." He said, trying to walk the line of respectful without being too over-the-top.

Charles Swan glanced backwards at the young man as he picked his horse's hooves. "Your that boy from the ranch over the east hill, been hanging around Isabella, ain't ya?"

"Jasper Whitlock, sir." Jasper answered, even though they both knew his name. "There's to be a formal at the church this week. Would you allow me to escort Isabella?"

The man looked at him for a moment, putting down the hoof he had been picking and turning back to his saddlebags. "You ask Bella?"

Jasper managed not to flush. "Not in so many words. She had said you would be home today when she mentioned the formal to me."

The ranger eyed him silently for a long moment, obviously trying to make him uncomfortable. "She tell you about her mother?"

"A little." Jasper admitted.

The man pulled his Springfield rifle from across the saddle, making a show of checking it, and then checking his revolver. "You respect her, and make sure you get her home at a proper time."

"Yes sir." Jasper said with a smile.

* * *

"Chief Swan." Jasper breathed. "How did I not see that?"

"My mother's glamoury is very good." Bella said, rolling her eyes. "So, what's the story? I move in with my father and we fall in love? Do I hide here, away from human eyes? Something else?"

"How many times is Chief Swan going to try and shoot me when I climb in your window?"

Bella shrugged. "He gave you my hand in marriage, I don't think he gets to complain."

"In eighteen sixty-one!" Jasper protested.

"I wasn't exactly born in this century either." Bella pointed out. "It didn't stop him giving me a forty-five minute lecture on '_no magic_,' and an impromptu lesson on disarming people trying to stab me with iron." Her tone was wry, but she was obviously pleased.

"No more saddles on the dinner table?" Jasper laughed.

"You're not human anymore, and you already know, I think I can get away with a few parlor tricks." Bella replied, grinning at him.

"So…" Jasper drawled. "The police chief discovers that his wife left him while pregnant, and his teenage daughter comes to Forks, where she falls in love with the quiet foster son of the local surgeon?"

Bella considered that and nodded. "I think I can manage that."

Jasper glanced over at Carlisle. "Carlisle?"

Carlisle smiled at his foundling son. "I would never take your happiness from you, Jasper. We can make it work, and you Bella, are very welcome here."

Jasper whooped and swung her around, much like he had on their wedding day. "That's all well and good for Miss Swan…" He drawled. "But for tonight, Missus Whitlock is staying here."

Bella beamed at him. "There's no place I'd rather be, Major Whitlock."

Jasper gave her the roguish smirk that hadn't graced his face in he didn't know how many years. "That's because you haven't seen my bed yet, wife." He purred.

"Now that is something you absolutely must remedy." Bella replied, eyes darkening.

* * *

Aside from Emmett, Rosalie had always been closest to Jasper. On some level she would always resent Edward, because the thought in the back of her mind would always be that Carlisle would have never turned her if it hadn't been for Edward's loneliness. Esme, while having similar history, was happy to fill her life with little things and her created family, and Alice, while sweet, could remember nothing of her human life beyond vague shadowy horrors, and so was always so...excitable. While their suffering was not the same, she and Jasper had found a kinship in their quiet distance from all things human. They were the ones that tried their hardest to keep their distance.

"What kind of 'guest,' does Jasper have?" Rosalie demanded of her husband as they got into the car. She hated being out of the loop and was, apparently, the only one who didn't know what was going on, and that annoyed her.

"The hot brunette kind." Emmett said, shaking his head, then letting out a grunt as his wife smacked him. "Not like that, Rose, you know you're the only one for me! It's just nice to see Jazz getting some."

"But who is she?" Rosalie demanded. "Why couldn't Alice see her?"

"Don't know." Emmett admitted. "I wasn't there long enough to get details, they sent me to get Jazz. I guess we'll find out when we get home, babe."

Rosalie blustered in, annoyed at being the last to know things, but she realized quite quickly that she wouldn't be getting answers from Jasper thanks to vampire hearing.

"Way to go, Jazz!" Emmett cheered.

"Emmett!" Esme scolded.

"Aw, c'mon Esme, you know how much it sucks that he's always alone. I'm just happy for my bro!" Emmett defended.

"Who is she?" Rosalie demanded.

"She's Jasper's wife." Esme explained.

Rosalie reared back in shock. She had made herself the family archivist, partially because she wanted everyone to have the opportunity to remember if they wanted to do so. She had been so struck by Alice's lack of memory and had wanted to do something nice for her. Upon finding the truth, she had decided not to burden her new sister with it, but she had enjoyed the work. Emmett and Carlisle were the only two who knew about her 'hobby.' "When did Jasper get a wife?"

"1861, apparently." Edward offered.

"_If_ she is who she says she is." Alice said mutinously. "Since neither of us can read her to confirm she is telling the _truth_, and hasn't just manipulated Jazz's memories."

"Alice!" Esme protested. "Edward said Jasper's thoughts were what he'd expected."

"Yes, but you saw what happened when she kissed his eyelids! Suddenly he _remembered_ Charlie Swan from the 1860s!" Alice protested.

Rosalie ran upstairs and a heartbeat later, returned with the yellow folder she had built up on Jasper's human life and family. "Is this her?" She asked, flipping through the folder to an old tintype, holding it up to Esme and Carlisle, and then turning to show Edward and Alice.

"That's her!" Esme agreed, reaching out for the old photo. "Oh, Carlisle, look how happy they look."

Alice huffed as the photo made its way around to Edward.

"Isabella Swan," Rosalie said, carefully. "She just seems to disappear, around six to three months before Jasper was turned. I couldn't find any record of her after that. I assumed she died in childbirth." Her head tilted. "How is she here?"

"She's immortal." Carlisle explained. "But she was injured...poisoned...and just came out of what I understand as a kind of coma recently."

They were quiet for a moment before Emmett did what he did best, besides wrestle bears, and broke the moment. "I think Jazz is trying to put her in another one."


End file.
